National Newspaper Readership Up By 4.7%

National newspapers are leading the growth in news media audiences, with print readership rising by 4.7 per cent year on year.

The results are according to the latest emma (Enhanced Media Metrics Australia) data for March 2018, the first from the new strategic collaboration between The Readership Works, Nielsen and Ipsos.

Released today, the emma data also shows that digital audiences, who consume news media on devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, continue to grow, up 3.8 per cent to 13.5 million.

Total cross-platform readership for Australia’s news media sector remained stable in March, reaching 16.5 million or 90 per cent of the population (aged 14+).

Printed newspapers are read by 12.4m each month, or two-thirds of Australians.

Metro newspapers were read by 10.2 million people, or 56 per cent of consumers, over the same period. Regional and community news media brands are read by more than one-third of the population (35 per cent), or 6.4 million people.

The growth in news media continues to reflect the increasing recognition by Australians that news brands offer the most trustworthy and credible content.

This is the first emma data to come from Nielsen, announced last month.

Under the new arrangement, Nielsen leads the fusion process that brings together the emma accredited print readership data from Ipsos and Nielsen’s digital audience data, to deliver a total audience readership.

Nielsen Consumer & Media View (CMV) will also be fused to the emma Cross Platform data for the first time to provide critical product data.

This ensures the continuity of emma data, with no trend break.

NewsMediaWorks CEO Peter Miller said, “emma’s strategic collaboration with Nielsen and Ipsos reinforces the robust, transparent and independently audited readership currency metric for advertisers and media agencies, as advertisers become even more focused on trusted, brand safe environments for their campaigns.

“Meanwhile, Facebook has purged 583 million fake accounts in the first quarter of 2018, which is around 25 per cent of its self-claimed monthly audience of 2.1 billion.

“Whilst trust is back in vogue, it’s never gone out of fashion for credible journalism and proper news brands, reflected in the ADTRUST Galaxy Research study that reveals news media as the most trusted media for consumers for both content and ads of any channel.

“Perhaps this news is enough to stimulate some advertiser discussions and whether they might be better off directing 25 per cent of their advertising budgets to more trustworthy media channels.”

The Sydney Morning Herald is Australia’s highest-reaching title across all platforms with 4.75 million readers.TheDaily Telegraph followed, reaching 4 million readers and theHerald Sun on 3.95 million (see table below).